In order to allow unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to travel in civil unsegregated airspace, several technical problems must be solved. One of the most important issues is the “sense & avoid” problem: a UAV must be able to sense the presence of other aerial vehicles and, if necessary, perform an autonomous and safe last instant maneuver to avoid mid-air collision. Therefore, it is required that the UAV comprises an air collision avoidance system, sometimes also referred to as a Sense & Avoid system so as to be allowed to travel in unsegregated airspace. The air collision avoidance system would then comprise one or several sensors for sensing intruding aircraft, and collision avoidance functionality that uses the sensed data and the performance characteristics of the own aircraft to perform a safe escape maneuver.
The calculation of escape maneuvers requires large amount of processor capacity, and accordingly a limited amount of possible escape maneuvers can be tested so as to find a suitable escape maneuver.